"Huh! Jing!" Back at the guesthouse, Luo Qingming slammed his fist against the wall.
The pain spread from the back of my hand to my whole body, making every cell in my body jump, and some suppressed emotion was about to burst forth.
"What's that sound?" A waiter who happened to be passing by knocked on the door and asked with concern, "Comrade, are you alright?"
Luo Qingming looked up, her voice slightly muffled, "It's nothing."
As the waiter's footsteps faded into the distance, he sat down against the wall, staring blankly at the back of his hand that was beginning to bleed. His pupils were unfocused, and his handsome face carried a hint of calm madness.
Some things are inherent in one's nature, and no matter how much one tries to hide them, there will always be times when they inevitably slip out.
Huo Jing, his brother, always manages to easily make him tear off his mask and reveal his true nature.
Three days passed in this way. After selling the goods, Luo Qingming did not choose to go home immediately. Instead, he asked someone to send a letter to Lin Xiaoxiao and then stayed in J City.
Huo Jing was very busy. Seeing that Luo Qingming hadn't appeared for several days, he assumed that Luo Qingming had gone back to Beijing.
I felt relieved, but also a little reluctant to part with it.
I don't know when we'll see each other again.
"Boss, we have news about the person you asked me to investigate!" Xiao Ba ran in excitedly.
"Where is he?" Huo Jing suddenly stood up and got straight to the point, his clenched hands betraying his tension and anticipation.
Before Xiao Ba could catch his breath, he quickly replied, "Boss, the woman you're talking about married a pig butcher in the countryside eighteen years ago. Three years later, she was divorced and sent back to her parents' home because she didn't have any children, and then she disappeared."
“I asked people who knew her at the time, and they all said she ran off with a man.”
The veins on the back of Huo Jing's hand bulged. "Divorced?"
Xiao Ba said, "Yes, I heard that she was abducted by human traffickers for seven years and then came back on her own. There were a lot of rumors at the time, so the Xue family married her off to a pig butcher in the countryside. She didn't get pregnant for three years, so they divorced her."
"After being divorced, the Xue family wouldn't let her go back, saying it was shameful, and then she disappeared."
Every word Xiao Ba uttered was like a sledgehammer, crashing heavily onto Huo Jing's head.
A fierce fire of anger burned intensely in his chest, and his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.
He uttered each word carefully, "How many people are left in the Xue family?"
Xiao Ba said, "The Xue family elders are still alive. The eldest son's family, the second son's family, the eldest son's family has two sons, and the second son's family has one son and one daughter, a total of ten people."
"Despite the large number of people, the Xue family, the eldest and the second eldest, has not separated yet."
"Eldest brother, you have no idea. Our whole family is crammed into this tiny tenement building. It's so cramped to look at."
Huo Jing suddenly deflated, sat back down on the stool, and said to Xiao Ba, "Go investigate again, investigate in more detail, find out exactly what those people did."
"Also, investigate who Xue Liuyi contacted before she disappeared. We must find out where she went."
"If necessary, you can spend more money and then come to me for reimbursement."
Xiao Ba was unaware that Huo Jing valued that woman named Xue Liuyi so much.
But since the boss had given the orders, all he could do was try his best to handle the matter well.
"Okay, then I'll go again."
After nodding, it was about to run away.
Huo Jing stopped him, "Never mind, I'll go too, and I'll bring a few more people with me."
Xiao Ba scratched his head, "...Oh, okay."
The group of four headed towards a small town located below J City.
To make travel easier, Xiao Ba even got a beat-up Santana.
Although it's old, it's still better than two legs and two wheels.
Huo Jing didn't want to see the Xue family, so he went to find the people Xue Liuyi had met before she disappeared.
"They've been gone for fifteen years, how could an old woman remember them so clearly?" The old woman, who was sewing shoe soles in front of the house at the alley entrance, shook her head without thinking.
Huo Jing insisted, "Please think about it again?"
The old woman waved her hand impatiently, "Go away, go away, what's the point of you, a handsome young man, asking about a woman who hasn't been faithful? Besides, she's been with a man for fifteen years, what's the point of asking about this?"
Huo Jing's eyes turned cold as he pulled out a ten-yuan note. "Think about it carefully."
"Oh dear." The moment she saw the large coin, the old woman's attitude changed completely. Her eyes lit up, like a dog seeing a bone, and she reached out to grab it.
Huo Jing raised his hand, preventing her from grabbing it.
He just stared at the old woman indifferently, without saying a word.
The old woman's eyes darted around, she put the shoe sole on her lap, rubbed her hands together, and said, "Think about it carefully, and I've actually come up with something that doesn't seem right."
Huo Jing: "Speak."
Concise and to the point.
The old woman stared intently at the large denomination bill, "Then this..."
Huo Jing's eyes were indifferent. "If you tell me, I'll give it to you."
The old woman was relieved and actually recalled seriously, "After Xue Liuyi was divorced, she went back to her parents' home for two days. During those two days, the old woman and her two sisters-in-law kept arguing, saying that there is no such thing as a divorced woman going back to her parents' home. Since she was divorced, she should find a rope to hang herself or jump into the river and drown herself to end it all."
"That girl was pitiful too. She was kidnapped by human traffickers when she was sixteen and didn't return until she was twenty-three. After being kidnapped for so long, her reputation was ruined, and no one in town wanted to marry her. So the old couple from the Xue family..."
The old woman kept rambling on, pausing for a moment when she mentioned the time before Xue Liuyi disappeared.
"Everyone says she eloped with a man, but no one actually saw it with their own eyes."
Huo Jing said gruffly, "Why spread rumors about her if you didn't see it with your own eyes?"
The old woman pouted, "Although I didn't see it, quite a few people heard her calling out a name."
"That name sounds like a boy's nickname."
Huo Jing looked up. "What's your name?"
The old woman stopped talking, her eyes constantly glancing at Huo Jing's hands.
Huo Jing gave her the large sum of money without hesitation.
Since she was so straightforward, the old woman stopped hiding it and directly revealed the name.
"Xiaojin."
"Doesn't this sound like a man's nickname? What family would marry a girl with the character 'jin' in her name?"
"To be honest, those things were all..."
The old woman was still nagging, but Huo Jing shut down his five senses, his eyes glazed over.
Trails…
Did Mom disappear to go find him?
Where is she now? Why hasn't she appeared all these years? Could she be...?
No, that's impossible.
She must still be alive and well, how could she be dead?
She suffered so much pain before finally escaping.
She should be happy.
Yes, she is definitely living happily somewhere, he just hasn't found her yet.
As Huo Jing left the old woman's door, he stumbled and almost fell.
Seeing that he looked dazed and could barely walk, the old woman muttered to herself, "I'm afraid there's something wrong with him."
Looking at such a strong and handsome young man, his legs were trembling when he walked. What else could he be but sick?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
